There has been a battle largely behind the scene, and the stakes are high. China’s Huawei Technologies Co. , with funding from their government and the wholesale theft of technology from US companies, is working hard to establish their 5G networks around the world.
And the fear is that with pressure from the Chinese government, they could utilize the technology to spy on the users.
Imagine having a government with access over any conversation they choose in a country.
It’s not without precedent.
And in these hyper-politized times, this is in agreement.
So today, Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn ramped up the pressure on the telecommunications giant.
Huawei Technologies Co. and two of its U.S. subsidiaries were charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to steal trade secrets in a federal indictment unsealed Thursday, opening another front in the Trump Administration’s battle against the Chinese telecommunications firm.
…The charges closely track a series of allegations by companies identifiable as Cisco Technology Inc., T-Mobile US Inc., Motorola Inc., and others documented in a Wall Street Journal article last year.
…Cisco, identifiable as company 1 in the latest indictment, in 2003 accused Huawei of copying its software and manuals. The firm’s general counsel flew to Shenzhen to confront founder Ren Zhengfei with evidence of Huawei’s theft, which included typos from Cisco’s manuals that also appeared in Huawei’s, the Journal reported.
Mr. Ren gave a one-word response: “Coincidence.”
That’s pretty brazen.